The original screenplay of the Autumn Pastoral was written by Artavazd Peleshian for Armenfilm studio in Armenia.
Mikhail Vartanov wrote the usual "director's scenario" and composer Tigran Mansuryan improvised and recorded the score on the spot by looking at the final cut of Autumn Pastoral, which, like
Paradjanov: The Color of Armenian Land (1969), contained no dialog. The film was shelved by the censors who ruled that the "poorly dressed villagers were embarrassing." Four years later Artavazd Peleshian invited Vartanov to be the cinematographer of the Seasons of the Year
Four Seasons (1975), which explored the same theme of the life of the shepherds in the mountains of Armenia. The fascinating differences are that Artavazd Peleshian chose black and white and used his editing style of "distance montage," while
Mikhail Vartanov selected color and directed applying his method of the "direction of undirected action."
—PARAJANOV.com